[Dixielandjazz] Busking

[Mike Durham]

We once played a three-day gig in a supermarket in Washington (the English 
one), six hours a day as part of a promotion for Swiss cheese. The banjo 
player left his case open, and money soon started to accumulate. So I asked 
the store management if they had a favorite charity - they did - and we got 
a couple of plastic buckets from them with the charity's name on. We 
collected well over £300 (about $500) over the three days. No beer, but a 
nice extra for the folks who train guide dogs for the blind. We also got a 
lot of Swiss cheese, as the demonstrator girls were only too keen to get rid 
of the opened but unused stuff at the end of each day. To this day, the mere 
sight of the stuff makes me feel vaguely nauseous. All part of life's rich 
tapestry.....did I tell you about the time we played for the Jules Rimet 
Trophy? (to the uninitiated, that's the World Cup Soccer trophy). Well, it 
was being helicoptered round Britain, under armed guard no less, to be shown 
to the fans, and we played background music for an hour while it was in a 
parking lot in Darlington. Dixie versions of all the soccer tunes we could 
think of - fortunately, my home team (Southampton) are known as The Saints, 
so that one got a lot of play! Two wierd gigs to treasure.

Mike D.

>From: "Norrie Thomson" <jnt at blueyonder.co.uk>
>To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
>Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Busking
>Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2003 15:47:06 -0000
>
>Hi Listmates,
>
>The talk of busking reminds me of story regarding Dick Shooshan's Golden
>Eagle Jazz Band.
>
>The 'Golden Eagles' appeared at the Edinburgh International Jazz in 1994.
>During their stay, the band had a 'dep' bass player, the late and sadly
>missed Robin Tankard of Merseysippi Jazz Band fame.  During the band's 2
>week sojourn in Scotland I was allotted the task of looking after them.
>
>One of the gigs that the band had to play was in a large shopping mall. 
>Now,
>anyone who knows Glenn Calkins will also know that he has the biggest bag 
>of
>trombone mutes that you've ever seen. One of these mutes was a chamber pot.
>Having used this mute, he laid it on the floor, upon which Robin kicked it
>out to the front of the band. Unable to retrieve it mid-number it just lay
>there. The general public assumed that the band was busking and commenced 
>to
>put money into the chamber pot.  When the money was counted there was about
>£45 in it.
>
>After the gig Shoosh said to me that he thought this was almost like
>begging.  I told him that it was begging!  However, not be daunted, each
>time the band played outdoors in a public place after this the first thing
>after setting up was to place the chamber pot in front of the band.
>According to Ken Smith the money collected paid for the band's beer for the
>rest of the stay in Edinburgh.
>
>Whoa said the Scots are mean!
>
>Norrie
>
>
>Norrie Thomson
>Edinburgh
>Scotland
>
>
>
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